You don't need the greatest mass to make the biggest splash. Marc Iskowitz looks at three smaller agencies whose enthusiasm and fresh thinking have sent ...

Agency A-to-Z

The indispensable guide to healthcare agencies, including contacts, rosters, wins and losses, revenues and examples of best work. Agencies submitted their own data as part ...

Antidote

Ketek is an antibiotic with a deserved reputation as an effective treatment for bacterial respiratory infections.

Washington Insider

As I see it

Political meddling in the FDA's scientific decision-making, which began under President Clinton, seems to have cost the agency dearly in public opinion, judging by a ...

Democrats call for end to generic drug settlements

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) have called on organizations representing innovator and generic drug companies to take a stance against the ...

FDA defends handling of RU-486 probe

With a member of Congress charging that the FDA cares more about contact lens wearers with eye infections than women who die after a medical ...

Advocates want Congress to ban DTC

Advocacy groups led by Commercial Alert, National Women's Health Network, and Physicians for a National Health Program are seeking support for legislation to ban DTC ...

West Virginia eases drug ad-spend reporting rules

West Virginia's Pharmaceutical Cost Management Council has approved a watered-down version of rules requiring companies to report Rx drug advertising and marketing costs.

FDA can't regulate compounded Rxs

In a bench decision, Texas Western District federal judge Robert Junell ruled in May that pharmacy-compounded drugs are not new drugs subject to FDA regulation, ...

Media Notepad

UBM aligns CMP's US, European units

CMP Healthcare parent United Business Media consolidated its global healthcare operations into CMPMedica, aligning its US healthcare businesses like the Cliggott and Oncology Group journals ...

Journals shouldn't accept ads: article

An article in PLoS Medicine called for medical journals to reject ads from drug companies, saying they compromise the objectivity of journals.

Elsevier launches Update on Cancer Therapeutics

Elsevier has launched Update on Cancer Therapeutics, a quarterly online-only oncology review journal.

John Wiley & Sons launches new quarterly title

John Wiley & Sons is launching Evidence-Based Child Health: A Cochrane Review Journal.

Quadrant HealthCom hires Aldea for The Female Patient

Quadrant HealthCom hired Roxana Aldea as account manager for The Female Patient.

Thomson Healthcare hires SVP of sales for PDR

Thomson Healthcare has hired Roseanne McCauley, SVP of sales for PDR.

Media Forum

Brand managers and media planners

Marketing places the ads. Sales sells the space. Media acts as the gatekeeper between client and journal. But what should product managers expect from their ...

CME Report

Outcomes journal struggles for funding

A new journal, which is intended to discuss the emerging field of outcomes research, is instead struggling to get off the ground.

Docs rate exhibits as better than ads

Physicians prefer exhibits at medical meetings to some other modes of learning about new drugs and technologies, a study suggests.

Integrated wins Ultram ER med ed assignment

Integrated Communications, a unit of Lowe Healthcare Worldwide, won a pre-launch med-ed assignment for Ultram ER.

Jobson Education closes

Jobson Education, a former unit of Wicks Healthcare Education & Communications, shuttered.

Physicians Academy for Clinical & Management Excellence adds to its team

Physicians Academy for Clinical and Management Excellence has hired Sherlyn Celone and Heidi Katz, RPh, as SVPs of strategic education.

Researchers wrote that MCE hasn't changed practice behaviors

Researchers wrote in The Health Care Manager (25:1) that an analysis of studies of mandatory continuing education (MCE) in medicine and other healthcare fields found ...

MEBN signs agreement to integrate CME with Skyscape

MEBN signed an agreement to integrate CME content with Skyscape's mobile medical decision support tools and references.

E-marketing

Web Watch

While pharmaceutical marketers are gradually getting more sophisticated in their use of the Internet—even designing product sites with customers in mind—a recent survey of consumers ...

Informed lands Patton to replace Case-bound CEO

Informed Medical Communications (IMC), a provider of interactive information services, has named Thomas Patton CEO.

Direct Marketing

Wunderman names Kessel chief at RTC

WPP-owned Wunderman has named direct marketing veteran Barry Kessel CEO of RTC Relationship Marketing (RTCRM), its Washington, DC, unit.

Harte-Hanks hires Hartman from Horn

Glen Hartman has joined Harte-Hanks as SVP, digital marketing.

PDI deal deploys 300 sales reps

PDI signed a deal with an undisclosed major pharmaceutical company to employ 300 sales reps and is expected to reap $35-$40 million, the contract sales ...

AstraZeneca to send direct mail for Toprol-XL

AstraZeneca will send out direct-mail communications as part of a larger campaign for its hypertension drug, Toprol-XL.

Medcenter Solutions named Paul Kelly CEO

Medcenter Solutions has named Paul Kelly as CEO.

Xchange hires John Clark as EVP, managing director

Xchange, the relationship-marketing unit of CommonHealth, has hired John Clark as EVP, managing director.

DTC Report

AMA resolution calls for ad moratorium

The American Medical Association will advocate a mandatory moratorium on consumer advertising for new drugs.

GSW catches Tamiflu consumer work

Roche named GSW Worldwide agency of record for Tamiflu DTC work, following a multi-agency pitch involving FCB, Kaplan-Thaler Group, Digitas and Avenue A|Razorfish.

AbelsonTaylor names Wright account supervisor

AbelsonTaylor named Holly Wright account supervisor for the firm's DTC/DTP division, reporting to director Richard Blocki.

Shire awards Unit 7 consumer business for ADHD patch

Shire has awarded Unit 7 the consumer business for its Daytrana ADHD patch.

Deutsch names Dowshen to head Zelnorm and Diovan business

Deutsch named Matt Dowshen to head the firm's business on Novartis' Zelnorm and Diovan.

Pfizer delays advertising Exubera

Pfizer will hold off on advertising Exubera to consumers for one year while it focuses on education.

Public Relations

PR View by Peter Pitts

The other day a senior FDA official asked me what the agency should do to combat the negative media coverage.

Euro RSCG Life splits PR function, recruits Catlett

Euro RSCG Life has split its communications practice into product and corporate PR divisions, naming former Ketchum healthcare head David Catlett president of the product ...

FDA less trusted than pharma, says poll

A poll suggests that, amid drug safety worries, the FDA is less trusted than the drug industry.

In Focus

What's keeping agencies up at night in 2006?

Staffing concerns topped the list of the biggest challenges facing healthcare agencies in this year's MM&M's agency survey.

Back Talk

Long live consumer education

It is a fact of life that direct-to-consumer (DTC) promotion has become increasingly educational—as addressed by PhRMA's guidelines for DTC advertising, FDA's public hearing on ...